“Are you getting hungry?” he asked, moving into the living room. “I’ll order pizza.”

“Let’s go out,” I said. “It’s too hot. At least outside there’s a breeze.”

He set the lampshade on the coffee table and looked around at the piles of boxes. “We can go to my parents’. They’ll take pity on us and offer to let us stay the night. Then we’ll refuse to leave, and that way we don’t have to unpack any of these boxes. For Christ’s sake, Sasha. If I’d known how much crap you have, I would have gotten rid of you months ago.”

“We’ll just have to get rid of some of your crap to make room for mine,” I said, coming up beside him and tucking my hand in the crook of his elbow. “Maybe some of your books. You’ve already read them, so you won’t mind if I sell them online, right?”

The dark look he gave me was so dramatic that I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it: he was like an angry teddy bear when he tried to act menacing.

Not that I would ever tell him that.

“You don’t respect me the way you should,” he said. “I’ll have to take you to bed and teach you a lesson.”

“Mm, are you going to spank me?” I asked. “I promise I’ve been very, very bad.”

He seized me around the waist and kissed me, and things probably would have escalated pretty quickly if the doorbell didn’t ring.

He muttered something against my lips and then pulled away, brushing imaginary lint off his t-shirt the way he always did when he was flustered.

“Are we expecting someone?” I asked.

He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Actually, yes,” he said, and then refused to explain any further, not even when I whined.

So I just had to wait and see. It didn’t take long. A few minutes later, there was a soft tap at the door, and then it swung open and Yolanda poked her head in. “Hello?”

“Yolanda?” I asked, confused. I had just seen her an hour ago, when I made a final trip to the old apartment to pick up some odds and ends.

“Surprise,” she said, coming fully into the apartment, and I saw that she had Teddy with her, in his little travel cage.

“Teddy!” I cried, and then looked at Alex and frowned. “I thought you said you didn’t want him underfoot while we were unpacking.”

He shrugged, and tucked his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “I changed my mind. A house isn’t a home without a parrot.”

“What a good boy,” Teddy squawked, and I was surprised to feel my eyes filling with tears. Everything was changing. They were good and happy changes, but still a little bittersweet.

Yolanda set the cage down, and I crossed the room and flung my arms around her. “I’m going to miss living with you so much,” I sobbed.

“Oh, honey,” Yolanda said, patting my back. “I’ll miss you, too. You know you can come visit anytime. Just make sure you call first, because Will doesn’t like wearing pants indoors.”

“Sad, but all too true,” Alex said. “Come on, sweetheart, don’t cry.” He came over and stroked my hair, and I stood there sandwiched between the two of them, whimpering pathetically, safe, cared for, sad and happy all at once. I knew they were probably making eye contact above my head and grimacing at each other about how silly and emotional I was, but I didn’t give a shit. Sometimes a girl just needed a good cry.

Finally, Yolanda pulled away and said, “I have to go home, honey. Will and I are going over to Tanya’s for dinner tonight.”

I sniffled and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. Alex was right: I was disgusting. “Tell her hi for me,” I said.

“I will,” Yolanda said, and then, in a rare display of physical affection, she kissed me on the cheek. “You’re going to be fine, you know that? This man is crazy about you. Even the stupid bird is crazy about you. You’re going to have a good life.”

Behind me, Alex squeezed my shoulder, a steady and comforting presence.

“I know,” I said. “Sorry I cried on you.”

“Worse things have happened,” Yolanda said. She gave me another brief hug, and then she was gone.

I sighed, and turned to face Alex, leaning my head against his shoulder. He put his arms around me, and we stood there in silence for a few moments. He smoothed his hands up and down my back, soothing me.

“Moving sucks,” I said.

“I agree,” he said. “Although I hope you aren’t having second thoughts about the end product of moving.”

I looked up at him. His hair was getting long. I would have to buzz it for him soon. “You mean living with you?”

“Living with me, staying in New York. The whole package,” he said.

“I will never,” I said firmly, “regret anything about you.”

He smiled at me. “Well, in that case. We should let Teddy out of his cage. He looks unhappy.”

I glanced down. Teddy was muttering to himself and probing at the latch with his beak. “Poor Teddy,” I said. “Do you want a tour of your new home?”

“Want juice,” Teddy said, spreading his wings as much as he could in the small cage.

“Poor Teddy indeed,” Alex said, and squatted down to open the cage. “Yolanda must have given some poor cab driver a real fright.”

I laughed, and wiped my nose again. “Can you even imagine? He’s been in cabs before, but I usually warn the dispatch when I call. You don’t want to give someone a heart attack with a surprise parrot.”

“Mm, that sounds like a euphemism,” he said, and held his arm in front of the cage. “You can surprise my parrot whenever you want. Step up, Teddy.”

“You’re really weird,” I said, watching Teddy clamber awkwardly out of the cage to perch on Alex’s arm. “I don’t think you should talk like that around Teddy. He’ll get bad manners.”

“His manners are already appalling,” Alex said. He waited while Teddy arrange himself, mantling his wings to keep his balance, and then he stood up and said, “Should we leave him out to explore?”

I shook my head. “Let’s just put him in his cage for now. He’ll be overstimulated enough just being in a different room. Baby steps.”

We went into the office, where Alex had set up the new, enormous cage he insisted on buying for Teddy. After a rocky start, Alex’s shameless bribery—treats, toys, endless head scratches—had overcome Teddy’s suspicious nature, and now they were, as Yolanda put it, BFFs.